Emphasis Preaching Journal

Fred Rogers, the star of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, was an ordained Presbyterian minister who didn't smoke, drink, or eat meat. He prayed every day and went to bed by 9:30 each night. He is remembered as a warm, fuzzy, innocuous man in a cardigan sweater. But, so many of the messages he tried to impart to his young viewers were hard and unpleasant: That your parents might someday decide not to live together anymore. That dogs and guppies and people all someday die. That sometimes you will feel ashamed and other times you will be so mad you will want to bite someone.